Artist Georgia O’Keeffe, who played a pivotal role in the development of American modernism.
Photograph: Tony Vaccaro/Getty

Exhibition

Georgia O’Keeffe’s first solo show in the UK for a generation arrives at the Tate Modern in London in the summer. The “mother of American modernism” is famous for her lush, sensual paintings of flowers such as Black Iris and Oriental Poppies, but she also excelled as a landscape artist. After making annual pilgrimages to New Mexico, she moved there for good following the death of her husband, the photographer/gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz, in 1946. It was this rugged desert landscape that inspired such starkly glowing works as Black Place and White Place. The Tate’s ambitious summer retrospective of her work promises to range widely and deeply, showing how influential O’Keeffe was to artists of her own generation and those that came after. This show offers a fantastic opportunity to dive into the life and work of one of the 20th century’s most important – and intriguing – artists.

Film

Anomalisa is the story of Michael Stone, a lonely self-help author who checks into Cincinnati’s Al Fregoli hotel (as in Fregoli delusion, a psychiatric disorder that causes the paranoid sufferer to believe everyone in the world is the same person), where he experiences an existential crisis alongside cocktails at the bar and in-room TV. Tender and sinister by turns, this uncanny new work from American auteur Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Synecdoche) is played entirely by puppets. David Thewlis voices Stone, Tom Noonan Stone’s wife, ex-girlfriend, taxi-driver, concierge and everyone else – apart from Lisa, a shy woman Stone meets at the hotel (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh). There’s something undeniably weird about watching latex puppets sit on the toilet, masturbate and have sex. But the overall effect is not only eerie but peculiarly touching.

Television

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a classic novel in possession of a good plot must be in want of sexing up by Andrew Davies. The screenwriter who put Colin Firth in a wet shirt for Pride and Prejudice now turns to War and Peace, improving on Tolstoy with an incestuous love affair between siblings Hélène and Anatole Kuragin. Controversy aside, any adaptation by Davies (who also made Bleak House for TV) is worth watching, and with a cast that includes Gillian Anderson, Paul Dano, Stephen Rea and Jim Broadbent, this promises to be epic in every way. For those who like to supplement their costume dramas with dark, twisty police thrillers the return of Jed Mercurio’s contemporary TV classic Line of Duty will be just as exciting. Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar are back as police internal affairs squad AC-12 investigates an armed response squad led by Sgt Danny Waldron (the excellent Daniel Mays).

Memoirs

Towering memoirist or insufferable narcissist? Karl Ove Knausgaard divides opinion but there’s no denying that the latest instalment of My Struggle, his series of fictionalised memoirs, will be one of the big books of the year. After some serious navel-gazing on his childhood, adolescence and time spent teaching on a remote island, this chapter of his exhaustive autobiography explores Knausgård’s early days as a writer. If the relentless and forensic self-examination of the Norwegian miserablist doesn’t appeal, then there’s memoir of a different kind from Canongate, whose My Old Man, edited by Ted Kessler, pulls together tales of paternal experience from people including Florence Welch and Paul Weller. The sons and daughters of Leonard Cohen, Ian Dury and Roy Castle are among those reflecting on their fathers.

Theatre

A new era dawns at Shakespeare’s Globe as Emma Rice takes up the reins as artistic director. The dynamic director of the Cornish company Kneehigh is known for her punchy, visual, physical theatre so she should bring something radically new to the open air playhouse. Although the programme will not be announced until 5 January, Rice is already talking about slashing the plays’ lengths, more relaxed performances and losing the doublet and hose. Meanwhile, in Stratford, Paapa Essiedu is taking the title role in a new RSC production by man of the moment Simon Godwin. After making his name at the Royal Court, the director behind the National Theatre’s acclaimed Man and Superman should bring a fresh, vigorous sensibility to the Prince of Denmark.